The Kelowna Rockets opened their shortened-season schedule with a bang on Friday night, smashing the Victoria Royals 5-0 at Prospera Place.
Kelowna product Alex Swetlikoff scored twice for the Rockets while Cole Schwebius had a perfect outing between the pipes, turning aside 19 shots, before a near-empty arena featuring no fans.
Steel Quiring, who opened the scoring just 2:48 into the game, Elias Carmichael and Jake Lee also scored for Kelowna (1-0-0-0). Adam Evanoff stopped 30 of 35 shots for Victoria (0-1-0-0). The game sheet can be seen here.
“I thought our start was great,” Rockets head coach Kris Mallette said in post-game comments. “The guys have been working extremely hard over the past seven days that we’ve had camp going on, and we’ve demanded a lot out of them.
“I actually was a little concerned that we worked a little too hard over this last little bit, but you couldn’t have asked for a better start, for sure.”
Mallette added that, “I’m sure as these games progress throughout the next 48 days, things will get more intense. But tonight, I thought that our guys were skating very well. The puck movement, I was pleased with it.”
Notably, the last time the two teams played a league game was March 11, 2020 – and it was against each other. On that date, Victoria posted a 3-2 win in Kelowna, as the Royals outshot the Rockets 33-24.
One week later, on March 18, the WHL cancelled the rest of its season because of COVID-19.
Fast forward 381 days and the Rockets earned a measure of vengeance, although both teams iced vastly different, and quite young, rosters.
Quiring, from Vernon, opened the scoring early by burying an own rebound for his first WHL goal. Evanoff made the initial save off Quiring’s on-the-rush shot but fumbled the save. Quiring then rushed in and slapped home the rebound to make it 1-0.
Just minutes later, at 6:33, Carmichael made it 2-0 with a long wristshot from the left side of the blue-line.
In the second, Kelowna made it 3-0 just 11 seconds in, Swetlikoff with a beauty. The faceoff went into Kelowna’s zone, but it was quickly pushed up, with Swetlikoff springing into a one-on-three rush along the right side. Keeping the puck and cutting in from the faceoff dot, he split two defenders, stickhandled, then sniped a low, left-side shot.
The highlight goal would have normally elicited roars from the fans, but, with no one in attendance, it was oddly quiet, though cheers from his bench could be distinctly heard.
At 17:14, Lee made it 4-0, firing home a shot from the blue-line on the power play. In the third, Swetlikoff closed out the scoring at 7:31, burying a rebound from Victoria’s doorstep.
Kelowna went 1-for-5 on the power play while Victoria was 0-4.
Elsewhere in the WHL on Friday night, it was:
- Kamloops 7, Vancouver 4
- Seattle 5, Spokane 0
- Everett 2, Portland 1
- Edmonton 4, Calgary 3
- Medicine Hat 3, Lethbridge 0
- Saskatoon 7, Regina 3
- Swift Current 7, Winnipeg 4
The Rockets will be back in action on Sunday evening when they travel to Kamloops to play the Vancouver Giants. Game time is 6 p.m.
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